Filtering by Category: white supremacy

EP62 - Breakfast at Tiffany's may be a classic film but it's hard to ignore Mr. Yunioshi, a Japanese character played by a white man in yellowface. While discussing this adaptation of Truman Capote's 1958 novel, let's look at the history of yellowface in Hollywood, reminding ourselves that while we might not see someone doing such a blatant caricature yellowface and its racism, xenophobia, and orientalism still seeps into pop culture today - but now more covertly through whitewashing.

In The Greatest Showman P.T. Barnum is shown as a champion for outsiders who accepts and celebrates their differences and their diversity, but can the movie truly have a positive message when the very man who it makes its sympathetic hero is really a man who exploited people with disabilities and people of color to make money.

There's a stereotype that all black people love watermelon, but where does this trope come from? In this episode we'll talk about how since the Civil War the black community has been negatively associated with watermelon throughout pop culture, from minstrel shows to newspapers, music and cartoons, and paper goods to TV. And whether we realize it or not, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the stereotype and trope remains today - because that’s American culture and American history.

Dumbo might be a classic, but it’s important to understand the history behind one of its characters, especially when that history encompasses slavery, racism, and discrimination in the United States, starting with blackface at minstrel shows and ending in written laws.

Recently there was a viral video of Andrew Johnson, a black teen who was told by a white referee that he could either cut his locs or forfeit his wrestling match. Would it have been the same situation if he had been white? Let's talk about hair and what is fashionable for white people can lead to discrimination for blacks.

L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. The story has turned into a cultural phenomenon, from plays and musicals to movies, most notably as the 1939 film starring July Garland. But scratch the surface and you'll learn that L. Frank Baum was nothing more than a white supremacist.

What do you think of when you think of MTV? Reality TV? TRL? Beavis and Butt-head? Because depending on when you started watching MTV you might remember it for what it truly was: a music channel that tried to only play white rock artists.

In today's episode we're going to talk about how the writers of The Little Rascals were influenced by popular media of the time: the Inglewood Raid and lynchings in newspapers, the film The Birth of a Nation, and music produced and sold by the KKK.